The real story of foreclosures

Everywhere you turn there's a different report tracking foreclosures. A new one is released just about everyday. The problem is they all conflict.

The same is true with bankers, Realtors and economists who weigh in on the topic.

Some say we're pretty much doomed because a tidal wave of foreclosures put off during the "robo-signing" fiasco are on their way to flood the market. Others argue that theory is over-blown because lenders know it would strip profits from their own pocket by causing home prices to bottom.

The unemployment picture is the kicker because it controls whether borrowers can afford their mortgage or not. But labor trends haven't given us a clear answer either.

(Screaming voice): What's really going on with the foreclosure picture in Southwest Florida?

Here's a few stats that might be able to help.

There were 66,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in April, compared to 78,000 in April 2011 and 66,000 in March 2012, according to CoreLogic.

Since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008, there have been about 3.6 million completed foreclosures across the country. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of April, down 3.5 percent from a year ago, CoreLogic said.

Florida had the highest ratio of homes in foreclosure last month at 12 percent, or 92,137 properties.

But alas, help is on the way, as another report shows.

Foreclosure sales accounted for 26 percent of all U.S. residential transactions during the first quarter — up from 22 percent in the fourth quarter and from 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac.

The average sales price of homes in foreclosure or owned by the bank was $161,214, the organization said.

Manatee County logged 572 foreclosure sales in quarter one, a 26 percent jump from the previous quarter and 2.5 percent rise from the first quarter of 2011.

What does all of this mean? Well, apparently foreclosures are still coming down the pike pretty strong, but there's also still a huge demand for them among buyers.

What do you think? Will foreclosures slow down any time soon? And are you getting tired of reading all of the reports yet?

For the latest stories on all things real estate check Bradenton.com regularly and follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman

First impression from Robrady visit

I made a visit to ROBRADY Design in south Manatee today to meet with the product development firm's CEO Rob Brady.

In one word: wow.

It looks like you're everyday business center at first glance. But open the doors to the design studio, and you're immediately punched in the face with excitement.

The company helps design products for sectors ranging from electric power sport vehicles to health care. It's latest endeavor -- a specialized belt conceptualized by a chiropractor that eases women's menstrual pain when worn. 

Because I like power sports more, I'm going to focus on that for now.

Life-sized design printouts from their prototype models dress the walls of Brady's office. Downstairs in the design studio, the actual vehicles line the center of the room like a dealership ... talk about eye candy!

The part that really hit home for me was when Brady showed me the Styrofoam test design of an electric scooter next to the actual commercialized product (pictured). Just like that, the scooter went from concept to realty.

The firm, which has about 60 employees through five buildings in the Manatee-Sarasota area, even specializes in helping other entrepreneurs bring their ideas to market. That's accomplished, in part, through a partnership with the University of Florida, where ROBRADY has a hub.

The research initiative also gives UF students some practical experience in today's evolving economy. Pretty cool stuff.

To learn more about ROBRADY Design, and the broader picture of growth in the local high-tech industry, check out my story slated to hit the newsstands Monday. As always, you can also find it at Bradenton.com.

For the latest business updates, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman

News Train highlights evolving industry

Every day when I report to work,  I hope to give you an inside look into at least one or two businesses before I go home to my family for the night.

Today and tomorrow I'm in Coral Gables with East County reporter Nick Williams for the Miami News Train media conference at the University of Miami to brush up on my story-telling skills.

But I also saw the trip as a unique opportunity to give readers an inside look into the business of journalism, which unlike banks or real estate, you won't frequently read about in the paper.

There's an ongoing struggle in the industry over how to best keep operations viable as readership quickly shifts from the print newspapers, which we charge for, to our Bradenton.com content, which we don't. The primary business model right now relies on online advertising, a system driven by "clicks" or online page views in many cases.

Journalism always has been cut-throat, with reporters hustling to get the news correct (most important) and before the competitor (also important). The proliferation of the Internet has thrown that mindset into over-drive. The more quality stories you publish and the more breaking news you get first, the more page views you're likely to host on your website. That equates to the money that allows news companies to keep operating.

Many old-timers argue that model has changed the industry for the worse, with stories now just a three paragraph online post and a tweet before reporters move onto the next one. That's great, and it absolutely serves the community's vast hunger for information. But it also has made a lot of online news stories a mile wide and an inch deep.

According to presenters at the News Train conference, readership still is driven by in-depth writing that captures the emotion of the audience.

This weekend, we're learning better ways to deliver the best of both worlds -- throw up an online post, tweet about it, tell your Facebook friends, make a few calls and write a touching narrative for tomorrow's paper. Sprinkle in a multimedia component and you have full circle coverage.

That's what readers want, and that's what we want to deliver. Because essentially, the more readers and ads we have, the more revenue we have. The more revenue the company has, the longer I stay employed. That's simple business 101.

For the latest on all things business, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman

Welcome to Miami

Bradenton Herald East County reporter Nick Williams and I will be travelling today to Coral Gables, where we will spend the next two days attending the "Miami News Train" media conference at the University of Miami.

Why am I sharing this you ask? Well, this is a business blog, and most media organizations are businesses. That's right, we try to make a profit too.

During the course of the conference, I will be tweeting tidbits and news that will be of interest for both members of the media and outsiders who want to gain an inside look at the industry.

I also plan to post at least one blog here each day to give you a run down of the goings on, which I expect to be plenty. A quick look at the agenda includes seminars on interactive story telling, building a mobile strategy, the data mindset, social media reporting and beat mapping.

And don't worry, I left the paper with plenty of solid business stories to cover my absence, especially Monday, which will feature a look at the job market for teens seeking summer employment. You will be able to find the story at Bradenton.com.

Follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman or Williams @_1NickWilliams

Houses, planes and commercial deals

There's a lot happening in the business world this afternoon.

For starters, the Sarasota-Bradenton area was ranked in the nation's top 10 for "turnaround towns" for the third consecutive quarter during the weekend.

The area's No. 9 ranking was among seven cities in the Sunshine State to make the report’s top 10, which was compiled by Realtor.com, the online property search website for the National Association of Realtors.

The website dubbs the list as an index of the country's top housing markets helping drive an industry recovery.

The area reported homes in March were up 23.7 percent compared to February, dipping 1.4 percent from the same time last year. Median list prices also rose 12.6 percent in the Sarasota-Bradenton market for the first quarter 2012, while inventory shrunk 27.7 percent over the year.

Other Florida cities listed in the top 10 included Miami at No. 2, Orlando at 3, Naples at 5, Fort Myers at 7, Lakeland at 8 and Tampa at 10. Punta Gorda just missed the cut at No. 11.

You can read more about that in the Bradenton Herald tomorrow.

Also, this morning, the airport announced Delta has added a new flight from New York's LaGuardia to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. It becomes the third carrier to expand or add new service since the AirTran decision to cease all flights at SRQ was finalized in January.

You can read all about it here.

In the market for a new apartment? Well, the Tradition at Palm-Aire Apartments along the University corridor in South Manatee has changed hands for $13.5 million. Get the full scoop here.

And in case you haven't already, read by my story on how the economy impacts retirement plans for Baby Boomers. It's pretty good if I do say so myself.

That should keep you busy for a while.

For the latest business updates, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman

Chamber helps kids explore careers

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pro football player when I grew up. If you have ever read this blog before, you would know that didn't turn out so well.

Lucky for me, I found the next best thing -- a reporter for the Bradenton Herald.

For a young kid with a racing imagination, figuring out some realistic ideas for a profession can be quite difficult. Last week, the Manatee Chamber of Commerce was there to help.

Through the chamber, nearly 100 business volunteers on May 4 participated in the T.E.A.C.H. program at 32 elementary schools in Manatee -- reaching more than 3,000 students in one morning.

Project T.E.A.C.H. (Teach Everyone About Career Horizons) is designed to increase career awareness among 4th grade students, while stressing the importance of first impressions. For many students, this was the first time they had been exposed to careers other than those of their parents.

The program began with the students trying to guess various characteristics about the business volunteer, such as how old they were, what type of car they drove, and even their favorite fast food.

The volunteers then talked about their careers and the educational pathways they took to get there. To close the program, the students designed business cards based on their career aspirations.

Volunteers ranged from small business owners, veterinarians and artists to even a monkey trainer for the circus (that's a pretty good one too).

For the latest business updates, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman.

New housing reports right here

Two reports measuring the current pulse of the housing industry were released this week by CoreLogic, a real estate information firm.

The first, its national March home price index, shows housing prices declined a modest 0.6 percent from the same time last year.  But prices were up from February, marking the first monthly increase in the U.S. since July 2011.

In the Bradenton-Sarasota area, home prices increased by 3.5 percent in March 2012 compared to March 2011 and increased by 3.1 percent in February 2012 compared to February 2011. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices rose 2.9 percent in March 2012 and 0.5 percent in February, the report shows.

It looks like prices are beginning at least plateau, a trend many experts believe has been fanned by a culmination of strong sales and dwindling housing inventories.

When that happens, it usually means new construction picks up. And that may be the best news yet for Southwest Florida.

Home prices in the Sunshine State are still down 48 percent from their peak.

The second CoreLogic report, the MarketPulse Index, is a longer summary of the firm's expectations heading forward. Here are some of the highlights:

• Short sales and mortgage modifications are playing a larger role than in years past, while the flow of new foreclosures is declining with an improving economy.

• Home sales activity continues to improve, with total sales eclipsing 410,000, up more than 20 percent from a year ago and the highest March sales rate since 2007.

• The most improved markets this year are Phoenix, Boise and Salt Lake City.

• Home prices are at, or very close to, the bottom as the Memorial Day weekend approaches.

For the latest real estate news, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman

The consequences of job gains

A decreasing unemployment rate is what just about every labor market stakeholder wants, right?

Well, for about 1,000 jobless residents between Manatee and Sarasota counties, the answer is a definitive wrong.

That's because 617 of the area's unemployed will immediately lose their federal extended benefits next week as a result of recent dips in Florida's unemployment rate, which reached 9 percent in March, the latest figures available. Another 449 jobless slated to soon fall into the extended benefits program -- the last lifeline for long-term unemployed -- now will not qualify.

When Congress passed its Unemployment Compensation Extended Benefits plan, all states that reach a certain benchmark of improvement no longer could tap into the fund. For Florida, that mark was passed in March.

Great for the economy. Bad for 1,066 jobless residents in Southwest Florida.

The cutoff date is May 12.

The state and local jobs agency are working now to notify those impacted by the change, while seeking to remind them of the local help available.

You can read all about the situation in my story, which is slated for tomorrow's Bradenton Herald and Bradenton.com first thing in the morning.

But, if you were following me on Twitter @JoshSalman, you would have known this already. (That was a hint to follow me!)

New Q&A series right here

I have always thought there's no better way to avoid mistakes than learn from those who have done it before you. The theory works for parenting, sports and especially business.

With the economy slowly working on a rebound, we thought there was no better time to put this ideology to the test.

The Bradenton Herald this month ran the first in an occasional series of exclusive interviews between myself and prominent business executives who have retired to the Bradenton-Sarasota area. Because I want to give you words just as they came out of the speaker's mouth, the series will be in a Q&A format.

I hope to present readers with a little insight as to what made these folks so successful, what they see in today's changing economy and why they opted to retire in Southwest Florida. Our goal is to publish at least one or two of these articles a month.

The series opened April 16 with Bill Johnston (pictured), who finished an impressive 40-year career as president of the New York Stock Exchange. Read about it here.

The next is scheduled to publish in the paper and Bradenton.com on Monday, featuring Dick Radt, who helped five struggling paper manufacturers become profitable -- turning the largest of them into a $1 billion company with 3,000 employees through seven state locations at the time of his retirement.

If you have any ideas on retirees in Southwest Florida who fit the bill, please share them with me by leaving a comment here or sending me an email at jsalman@bradenton.com. I'm also looking for ideas on interesting questions you would like to see me ask these executives, so feel free to share those as well.

And as always, for the latest business updates, follow me on Twitter @JoshSalman